The Tour of the Alps always indicates the riders to watch for the Giro d'Italia and Lennard Kämna added his name to the growing list of overall contenders for this year’s Corsa Rosa with his win on stage 3 atop the Passo San Valentina.
After some impressive work by Bora-Hansgrohe on the front of the peloton in the first half of the climb, Kämna jumped away alone in pursuit of victory. He had the strength to crack Jefferson Cepeda (EF Education-EasyPost) and to hold off Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) as he led the small group of overall contenders.
Last year Kämna won stage 3 of the Tour of the Alps from a breakaway. This year he won by attacking the overall contenders. That is a significant difference and legitimises his Giro d'Italia GC ambitions.
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“Doing well at the Tour of the Alps is good motivation. Everybody in the team is really happy about this victory and we'll get some morale out of it,” Kämna said.
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) are the logical favourites for the final maglia rosa in Rome on May 28, but it will be fascinating to see who can emerge to fight for the podium and perhaps profit from their errors or rivalry.
Ineos Grenadiers duo Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart offer an interesting combination, as should João Almeida and Jay Vine for UAE Team Emirates. Jack Haig and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) are another serious duo, while Kämna and Aleksandr Vlasov lead Bora-Hansgrohe as they seek to defend Jai Hindley’’s 2022 victory and confirm Bora-Hansgrohe’s Grand Tour transformation.
“I think it will be hard to defend the Giro title but the aim should be the podium, I think for the one of us, but I think it's going to be really really hard but we try everything to be as good as possible,” Kämna said, conceding that Vlasov is Bora-Hansgrohe’s leader 'A' and he the talented understudy.
“It's not my intention to say I want to finish in the top three or top five but I want to be up there. I want to be in the game and show myself,” he said with growing confidence.
The 26-year-old German focused on hunting stage wins in 2022 as he returned from a sabbatical from the stress of professional racing. He proved his talents by winning stage 3 of the 2022 Tour of the Alps and then stage 4 of the Giro d’Italia to Mount Etna. He also went on the attack on three Tour de France stages, finishing fourth at La Super Planche des Belles Filles and eighth at Mende.
Illness ended his Tour early and ended his season too but he has recovered and pivoted to a GC role at Bora-Hansgrohe for 2023. Kämna was an unnoticed but impressive fourth overall at Tirreno-Adriatico and has since been training for the Giro d’Italia.
“I think there's still room for improvement for sure but I'm really happy with my season so far,” Kämna explained. “I feel like I'm l in a good shape but I also feel that I'm getting better from month to month. So far the season has gone quite well and I hope we can keep on going like this.”
Kämna was a prodigious talent in Germany but the expectations weighed on his shoulders. He wisely spent much of 2021 away from racing but re-found his love for the sport and the suffering it entails.
“I enjoyed last year but I had to live with ups and downs. This year I really try to be consistent and to build up nicely for the Giro,” he said.
“It’s a different task going to a race as a leader or trying to do a GC compared to trying to go for breakaways. Everything is about consistency and is a little bit different mentally. I’ve not changed my training and so consistency is the key to everything, as it will be at the Giro d’Italia.”
